Just a Scratch
by Buttshujinsama
Summary: SHORT oneshot featuring Raph angsting and Don being awesome.


Disclaimer: Let's think about this logically. If I owned them, I'd die of excitement. I am not dead. Therefore, it stands to reason that I do not own them.

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Batman was crouched on the kitchen table, carefully inspecting his boots and shining them with a bar of soap. He turned to Mikey. With a Chinese accent, he said, "Have you seen the rubber chicken anywhere? I need to tie it to his shoelaces before his arm hair grows longer." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Wolverine, who was dancing across the lair in a purple dress and sniffing at the fridge.

Suddenly, something bumped into the turtle. "Wha...?" he said, blearily opening his eyes. Everything was dark. Where was he? Where did Batman go?

"Oh." He was in his room. Some dream. He was just about to drift off when something dropped onto his shell. Repressing the urge to scream, he looked wildly about.

What he saw almost made him snicker.

Raph was sprawled on the edge of the bed, one arm thrown over his brother. He was gripping his sais with so much force that Mikey was surprised they hadn't just broken.

"Um...Raph?" he whispered, barely able to keep back the laughter.

"Mikey?" answered the bigger turtle, opening his eyes slightly. "Jus' go to sleep... an' I'll kill ya if ya tell anyone about this."

"Okaaay, whatever," Mikey mumbled, falling back on his pillow. Hmm, Raph was warm. Hoping that nobody would walk in or anything, he snuggled closer to his brother, who was still hanging onto his weapons.

Raph watched Mikey until he fell asleep. He looked around the room again, making sure there was nothing dangerous there. Turning his face back to the pillow, he closed his eyes.

It was the same dream again. Foot ninjas, Purple Dragons, the Shredder, random people off the street he didn't know, all throwing grenades and shuriken and deadly weapons, every one of them trying to kill him. He'd screamed when they hit each of his brothers in turn. Leo went down first, run through by a ninja with katana. Next came Donnie, blown to pieces by a well-placed bomb. When they cornered and shot Mikey, he'd lunged at the attacker, hearing the sound of an arrow whizzing through the air and burying itself in the back of his neck before waking up with a cold sweat. He'd had to be sure that it was only a dream, that they were still alive. That was why he had gone straight to Mikey's room.

He rubbed his eyes. There was no way he'd go back to sleep; too much adrenaline was running though his system. He got up and carefully tiptoed out of the room, stopping to look in on each family member in turn. Everyone was safe.

Sighing, he made his way to the kitchen to grab a soda. As he shut the fridge, he noticed that he was still shaking slightly. "Shell," he said, "I gotta stop doin' this."

"You sure do." He jumped and looked behind him.

"Dang it, Don, don't sneak up on me like that."

The other turtle stepped out ot the shadows, watching him worriedly. "You haven't been sleeping well lately."

"So?" Raph gulped down some root beer.

"So you're jumpy. For the last several days, you've been freaking out every time one of us wants to leave the lair. You've been training harder than ever before, but you're half asleep for the rest of the day. Even I've noticed that you've been... moodier than usual."

He sighed. "Look, Donnie, don't go tellin' me how important sleep is, okay? I know. I'm just... I'm not that tired," he finished.

Don just stood there, shaking his head. He took to staring at Raph, which made him shuffle around for a while.

"What's up, Raph? Is it a nightmare or something?"

He stiffened up a little. "I ain't Mikey. Dreams don't bug me."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah."

They stood in silence for a minute.

"I get them too, sometimes."

Startled, Raph looked back at his brother. Judging by his tone of voice, he was dead serious and a little - okay, a lot - worried.

"Yeah?"

"Yes. Usually they're... well, they're full of fighting and... one or all of us end up... end up dead." Don stared at the backs of his hands before going on. "So I know how you feel." He looked up. "You've been up half the night every night this week. It's understandable, given recent events."

Raph looked down at his arm, still carefully wrapped after a fight with the Foot one week before. Everyone had taken some hits - Leo had a couple of broken ribs, Donnie had a long gash across his chest, and Mikey was being really careful with his sprained ankle and slashed leg. Raph had gotten off easiest. He felt wrong about that - like somehow he'd failed to take care of them.

"Are you okay?" The voice brought him back to reality.

He sighed. "Yeah. I'll be fine. I just... I should get some sleep." He turned to the stairs, only to find Leo standing there.

"Raph, what are you doing up? And why were you sneaking around our rooms?"

He growled and tried to push past Leo.

"Hang on a minute." He grabbed Raph's wrist and looked at his face. "Your eyes are red and you have dark circles under them. And your pulse is crazy. What happened?"

"Had a funky dream. Now lemme go."

Suddenly, another green face appeared over Leo's shoulder. "Raph?"

"Oh, for cryin' out loud, people! Move over." He shoved his way past Leo and Mikey, stomping to his room.

He lay in his hammock, hands behind his head, staring at the dark ceiling. He'd just started wondering if everyone had gone back to bed yet when the door cracked open just a little.

He looked up. Donnie was walking in. "I thought I told you guys to leave me alone." Shell, he still sounded a little shaky.

"Which means you're still freaked out."

He didn't reply.

Don sat crosslegged by the hammock. He said nothing.

Raph was getting really tired. He told himself to just fall asleep before he said something stupid. He was about to doze off when he finally blurted out, "Some brother I am."

Donnie just listened. Raph continued.

"I mean, you guys got the snot beaten outta you, and how'd I end up? I got this scratch on my arm. I got off easy, that's it. I coulda done better."

He had no more to say, so he rolled over and tried to fall asleep.

"You couldn't have done better if you tried."

He looked back at Don, who was watching him carefully. "What?"

"I mean exactly what I said. That 'scratch' on your arm is about an inch and a half deep; should I remind you how you got it?"

Raph thought hard for a minute. He honestly couldn't remember where he'd gotten that. All he knew is that when they'd finished the battle, his arm had started shooting spikes of pain up his shoulder. "Yeah, Don, remind me," he said in an inquisitive tone.

Don sighed. "Mikey almost went down. He was completely surrounded, by about twenty Foot. He'd already taken that slash above his knee and the sprained ankle. He honestly thought it was the end."

Raph closed his eyes, starting to remember. He'd been furious.

"And then you dove right into the middle of it. You took down some guys and threw Mikey over your shoulder. Then, you just fought your way outta there - I don't have any idea how you did it - and when some ninja tried to hit Mike, you twisted around so he hit you instead. You clocked him so hard that he flew backwards about five feet."

Yeah, he'd enjoyed the satisfying crack resulting from the guy's head hitting the bricks. Still, it wasn't that much of a big deal-

"And then they focused on Leo. One of them kicked him across the roof into the wall; he ended up with whiplash and those broken ribs. It could have been worse. You kept them off him until he was back up and fighting. In fact, that was when you got the bruise on your left side."

Okay, that was intense. But it was just a bruise-

"And then, we were getting ready to leave when that guy jumped out of the shadows. He grabbed a bow and shot at me."

That part had been scary.

"But you jumped in front of it and it hit your shell. Buried itself pretty deep, too."

That one hadn't even hurt. It was really no biggie-

"You have every right to be upset, Raph. But not for the reason you think." He looked up intently. "You saved our shells. All of us. Right when we thought it was over, you came hurtling in and stopped anything really bad from happening. So you can be freaked out because we almost didn't make it. Maybe you can angst about the fact that none of us escaped unharmed. But you can't even think for a second that you failed in any way, because you didn't. You kept us going, the way you always do."

Raph was trying hard, but he couldn't keep his eyes from tearing up. He swiped at them angrily with the back of his hand and glared at Donnie. "What the shell didja do that for?"

"I think you needed it."

He secretly agreed. "Dang you, Don."

Donnie chuckled. "Get some sleep, Raph. Don't worry any harder than you already do."

Raph was already drifting off. "An' who said I was worried?"

The door clicked softly shut.

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Alright, first fanfic! Tell me what you think. Flames will be doused with mud.


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